15 Titles To Try If You're Curious About Living A Life Without Alcohol

Whether you're looking for a memoir or a guide to sobriety, we've got you covered.

1. Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

Grand Central Publishing

What this book is about: From stealing sips of her parents wine to a drunken adolescence, Sarah Hepola always had a connection with alcohol. But by the time she lived in a big city, she found herself drinking constantly and blacking out regularly. Blackout is her moving story about those many hours that disappeared due to too much booze, told with self-deprecating humor and a sharp eye on what she was trying to bury.

Get it from Bookshop here!

2. Drink: The Intimate Relationship between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston

HarperWave

What this book is about: We’re in the middle of an epidemic, where heavy drinking has become the norm for women and girls — and advertisers are cashing in on it. In Drink, Anne Dowsett Johnston takes a magnifying glass to the issue, using both extensive research and her own recovery story.

Get it from Bookshop here!

3. Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

Dial Press

What this book is about: After 20 years spent as a functioning alcoholic working in the journalism field, Caroline Knapp tells her story to the world. Drinking: A Love Story chronicles her days of drinking to escape reality and the crises that convinced her that she needed to make a change.

Get it from Bookshop here!

4. Drinking Games: A Memoir by Sarah Levy

St. Martin's Press

What this book is about: Drinking Games is so much more than a memoir — it’s also a social commentary about the absurd ubiquity of drinking and our obsession with living the perfect life for our Instagram followers. Sarah Levy writes candidly about her blackout drinking days, the chaos that ensued, and what drove her toward the glory of sobriety.

Get it from Bookshop here!

5. Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs

Picador USA

What this book is about: Dry is an intense memoir of alcoholism and recovery. Augusten Burroughs writes in such vivid detail that you can see his apartment and smell the empty liquor bottles lining the kitchen. He assumes he has his drinking under control until one day, his coworkers ship him off to rehab. He loathes it and the people in it, but he manages to come out into the land of sobriety.

Get it from Bookshop here!

6. Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa F. Smith

Select Books

What this book is about: Alcohol and cocaine barged into Lisa Smith’s life while she was crushing it as a lawyer at a prestigious law firm. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is her memoir through the lens of alcohol — from her teen insecurity to her adult stressors — and her journey to recovery. But that, too, was riddled with anxiety; what if she lost all her friends who gathered at bars?

Get it from Bookshop here!

7. A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad's an Alcoholic by Mariko Kikuchi

Seven Seas

What this book is about: This memoir manga is soul-crushingly poignant. Mariko Kikuchi writes the emotional story of living with her alcoholic father, grieving her mother who died by suicide, and all the learning she had to do along the way. Refreshingly, Kikuchi doesn’t believe that family should be forgiven for anything just because of blood, which makes A Life Turned Upside Down an especially powerful read.

Get it from Bookshop here!

8. My Alcoholic Escape from Reality by Nagata Kabi

Seven Seas

What this book is about: In the fourth installment of her memoir manga, Nagata Kabi covers her alcoholism, pancreatitis (caused by said alcoholism), and recovery. My Alcoholic Escape from Reality touches on the deeper mental and emotional facets of addiction and recovery with her signature art style.

Get it from Bookshop here!

9. Not Drinking Tonight: A Guide to Creating a Sober Life You Love by Amanda E. White

Hachette Go

What this book is about: Not Drinking Tonight is the perfect guidebook to keep on your nightstand while getting sober. Therapist Amanda White breaks down the history and science of alcohol consumption, as well as her own journey toward recovery. This book will help you figure out why you drink and how to heal your relationship with alcohol — and with yourself.

Get it from Bookshop here!

10. Nothing Good Can Come from This: Essays by Kristi Coulter

MCD x Fsg Originals

What this book is about: When she stopped drinking, Kristi Coulter began to see the world anew. She realized that when you drop an addiction, it leaves a major hole in its wake, and that the friends you drank with are maybe not that great after all. Nothing Good Can Come from This is a fun and smart collection of essays about getting sober.

Get it from Bookshop here!

11. Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker

Dial Press

What this book is about: The world is obsessed with drinking, and it is weird. On her journey to sobriety, Holly Whitaker was faced with the misogyny in liquor advertising and the patriarchal and religious methods for recovery. Quit Like a Woman is a powerhouse of an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous — an informative guidebook to breaking an addiction without a church.

Get it from Bookshop here!

12. Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery by Erica C. Barnett

Penguin Books

What this book is about: After multiple cycles of recovery and relapse, Erica Barnett realized that the go-to guide for sobriety wasn’t matching her experience. “Rock bottom” didn’t exist for her, so she figured out her own path. She details her life through alcoholism and beyond in her memoir Quitter.

Get it from Bookshop here!

13. Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol by Ruby Warrington

HarperOne

What this book is about: Despite our ideals of wellness and self-care, we still poison ourselves with alcohol regularly. But why? And why is it so strange to want to quit? Lifestyle journalist Ruby Warrington covers all this and more in Sober Curious, offering handy tips to going from sober curious to full-on sober.

Get it from Bookshop here!

14. The Sober Diaries: How One Woman Stopped Drinking and Started Living by Clare Pooley

Coronet Books

What this book is about: When she looked in the mirror and saw an overweight, depressed mother who drinks a bottle or two of wine per day, Clare Pooley realized she needed to make a change. The Sober Diaries is a chronicle of a year in her life — the year she quit drinking and then got breast cancer. Pooley uses comedy to tell her story, and intersperses research and advice for other people who regularly ask Google if they’re an alcoholic.

Get it from Bookshop here!

15. Sober on a Drunk Planet: Giving Up Alcohol by Sean Alexander

Sean Alexander

What this book is about: Sean Alexander is here to get you to see what a world without alcohol can look like, no matter how much or often you drink. Sober on a Drunk Planet is a quick read that provides all kinds of facts and motivation to begin your journey to recovery.

Get it from Bookshop here!